Adolescent students and gambling: analysis of behavioural discomfort

Abstract

Adolescent discomfort, or youth distress, is an issue that has always been of
major interest to educators, psychologists, sociologists and even criminologists
since it can trigger behaviours leading to misappropriation or ill-adaptation,
behavioural addiction or illegal behaviour, i. e. child bullying and juvenile
delinquency. Among the different kinds of discomfort which are
widely manifested also at school, many have characteristics linked to participation in social and daily classroom life, to school success, as well as behavioural dependency, also linked to the use of technologies, such as surfing
the internet on inappropriate sites, competing with online games, betting
on gambling, or as cyberbullying, and they can generate a dependence in a
similar way as a substance. The purpose of this article is to describe the results
of a nationwide study on one of the behavioural addictions that presents
specific characteristics because it involves young teenagers, enrolled
in formal education, with respect to cognitive and motivational spheres in
real and virtual activities, behavioural addiction and gambling, consequences
for the educational field.